This is my old, bad story, Heroes in Love, redone. For those of you who've read the old one, pretty please don't give away the ending if you remember it, okay? If you don't, too bad, I'm deleting my old one, so you can't look it up. :P As for the rest of the story, the plot may or may not follow my old one. I'm just going with the flow on this story and seeing where it takes me.

As far as the characters/pairings go: SonAmy and KnuxRouge, with some slight Tails/Cosmo angst and light Tails/Cream hurt/comfort. I was torn on which characters to put on the summary. As it is now, Sonic and Amy are already together (and they've just, and I do mean just, gotten together), Knuckles and Rouge aren't, this story is how I would picture them getting together.

A few more things: This is still set after my very first fanfic, Breaking the Sonic Barrier. That one I'm not too keen on, but I'm not going to rewrite it. Still the prequel to A Whole New World (which I AM proud of). Still set after Sonic X.

So, without further ado, here is my much improved story, Heroes in Love! Enjoy it!

...xxx...

Chapter 1: Always There

...xxx...

She was running.

That was all Amy was aware of - just running, running, running, her rapidly pumping boot-clad feet propelling her, short, intense gasps, her heart pounding in a painful beat, the blurs of passing objects, ...but most of all, she was aware of her pursuer.

Yes, this girl, who had forever been the chaser, now found the tables turned, and this time she was running away, for her life. So she ran from the demon-like, twisted form of the love of her life, who she was quite sure was hot on her heels. She didn't dare turn around, but Amy could feel it's cold, electronic red eyes glaring at her, wanting, waiting to grab her.

It was growing closer; Amy could hear the hum of mechanical parts getting louder, almost resulting in a sonic boom - It was faster than she was. Amy had always been the slow one, the one with the short end of the stick and lack of skills in any chase. But this time, when she was being pursued, being slower could be deadly.

Amy had no idea even where in the world she was, but it didn't matter - she just had to get away, get to Sonic-

Cold, hard metal suddenly stopped Amy in her tracks and swept the girl off of her feet. But there was no romantic sense of being held bridal style - just red, cold, beady eyes, the iron grip of blue steel...

"SONIC!" Amy cried desperately as she tried to wiggle out of the robot's grip. "Please! Sonic! Help!"

"He is nothing," the robot's mechanical voice spat at her, "but a soft, fragile, weak creature. He cannot help you. And I will destroy him."

"No! Let me go!" Amy cried out again, and frantically reached for her hammer, but the iron grip of the robot was squeezing her too tightly, crushing her body as it took off again, at super sonic speed -

"SONIC!"

Her eyes snapped open and Amy let out another few labored breaths...only now she wasn't being squeezed by anything hard, but only gently surrounded by soft blankets.

A dream.

Another one. And every time that blasted Metal Sonic, chasing her, catching her, taking off, and the real Sonic was nowhere to be found. But no matter how many times it played in Amy's dream-like imagination, it'd always felt so real, and she fell for it every time.

Now sitting straight up with adrenaline flooding her veins, Amy brushed her sweaty bang quills out of her face with trembling fingers.

Go back to sleep, Amy, it was just a dream.

But no, her heart was racing too quickly for Amy to slip back into sleep. Besides, maybe she'd have that awful nightmare again...

She tossed her comforter to the end of her bed and swung her bare legs over one side before bringing herself to full height. Amy's modest light blue nightgown flowed down to mid-thigh, but it didn't restrict any movement as Amy made her way through the still house.

Pink furry feet shivered in protest as they padded their way across the cold wooden floor, before finally finding repose on the warmer, fuzzy mat in front of the window. It was too dark outside to see anything, yet no glaring red eyes pierced the inky blackness. Only a steady breeze ruffled the leaves and broke the stillness.

Yes, the wind. The wind would always be there.

It wasn't in your dream.

But that was just a dream. A product of her over active imagination. Amy was quite certain that the wind would always blow the way it needed to, for her.

Because he promised me that he would.

Still, while Amy was ecstatic that her and Sonic were now together, some part of her couldn't shake that speech that he had given her just yesterday, about how their relationship would always be shrouded in danger. That there would always be a threat that something could happen to her, or Sonic himself.

"Being a hero, those are the side effects," Sonic had told her.

Amy had said she already taken that into account, and that she wanted to be with him anyway. "Even heroes need romance," Amy had responded with a sly smile. "To balance out all that fighting."

And it was true. Whether Sonic had come to realize this or it was for some other reason that he'd decided to give in, Amy didn't know. But honestly, she didn't really care. Her and Sonic were together now, there would be no more fruitless chasing after him on her part, and Amy found herself more happy than she'd been in her life.

A glint from the moon illuminated the silver bracelet hanging loosely around her wrist and caught Amy's eye. Her own name engraved into the metal band stared back at her, and Amy had to smile as her heart warmed. She took the bracelet in her other hand and flipped it over, and her index finger brushed the tiny script in the corner that secretly held the initials STH enclosed in a heart.

It'd been a gift to her from Sonic himself, to show her that he really did care, but wanted to wait until they were older, since he wasn't quite ready. Amy had said that she'd wait for him, but for some reason, he'd changed his mind. Probably him just being impatient again, Amy thought fondly as a smile played at her lips. Yes, even though he was dating her now, he was still her Sonic: carefree, cocky, heroic, adventurous, impulsive, impatient, yet he had a heart, too. For her, yes, but also for strangers. He would rescue them at a second's notice.

Just like he'll always rescue you, Amy.

Amy pulled herself away from the window and headed back to her bed, the rush of adrenaline and fear replaced by a more gentle relaxed, assurance.

...xxx...

All it took was one scream, and he was up in a microsecond, focused green eyes scanning the perimeter of the house he was was standing on. He detected no threats, just a gentle breeze ruffling his quills. Still, the legendary hedgehog stood on edge for 10 whole seconds, just to be sure. But no, it must have been just a bad dream, something that Sonic couldn't help her with.

This was why Sonic had decided to spend the occasional night on Amy's roof, nestled between her chimney and the slant. Not to be a Peeping Tom, not to be a stalker or a pervert - but just in case anything did come for her, they'd have to deal with him first.

Sometimes, like in stormy weather or if he was extra tired, Sonic would go sleep in a bed like a normal person, in a spare room at Tails' house, but normally he liked the freedom of sleeping outside, in the open air, in nature. And Amy's house was as good as any. After all, now that they were officially the most well-known item in Mobius (Amy had made sure of that), Sonic was keeping an extra careful eye on her. If she was used as an innocent hostage before they were dating, Sonic could only imagine what sort of crazy schemes Egghead was dreaming up for them now.

And that had been what had kept him back for so long, that was what was making him lose sleep at this very moment. That one day, she'd be hurt, all because of him. And he wouldn't be able to save her.

That was his greatest fear.

Now, Sonic had never been a worrier, as he dealt with problems as they came, but Sonic felt oddly anxious about the girl. She was just so innocent and he didn't want anything to happen to her. Then again, Amy gave him all sorts of new, indescribable feelings, most of them pleasant, of course, save for this anxiety.

But still, while having a relationship came with it's dangers, Sonic found the benefits far outweighed them. For now, Sonic had only the prettiest, sweetest, most lovely girl in the whole world as his girlfriend. And every time she so much as smiled at him, or her hand just happened to find his, or how her lips were just so sweet when they kissed...it made it all so very worthwhile.

Confident that Amy was now safe, Sonic brought himself onto his back to rest, but his own sleep was now disturbed. Sonic let his quill-laced head fall back into his tan arms, but his eyes remained open and locked onto the diamonds glittering in the sky, his ears alert for another one of Amy's screams.

Shoot, he was too awake and jittery now.

A sigh escaped his lips and Sonic brought himself to his feet and jumped from the roof, and hit the ground running. He only took one quick glance back at her house, then let his sneaker-clad feet take him where they would. Even though Sonic did have excellent vision, it wasn't all that safe to run at night. Still, he just had to burn off all of his excess energy.

You really shouldn't be worried, man. It was you who decided to change your mind and give in.

I know. I really didn't sign up for this when I decided to take her out that one time.

Sonic had initially done it to do something nice for Amy, but he'd ended up falling for her. In a big way. Of course, he'd cared about Amy before, but too many things had kept him back. His shyness and normal disgust with mushiness as well as his fear. But whatever, he'd made his decision to let Amy have him, and the hedgehog didn't regret it one bit.

Passing by Angel Island, Sonic took a quick glance by there, knowing he'd see a certain guardian sleeping away. Getting closer and hopping up to it, he did see a figure gracing the presence of the Master Emerald shrine, but unless echidnas had grown wings since Sonic had seen him last, that was not Knuckles.

Rouge.

Hm, I wonder what she's doing up there? Sonic wondered sarcastically, but he wasn't curious enough to stop. After all, Knuckles was the one responsible and the guardian, though a bad one.

Sonic had often teased Knuckles about his bat girlfriend, if just to get him back for all the heck he'd gotten about Amy all these years, though he could never, ever picture the two of them getting together. Ever. They were just too different.

Now that most of his energy was burnt off, Sonic left the thief and the guardian to sort out their own problems and headed back to Amy's house, quite certain that he was a better guardian than Knuckles.

'Cause, Ames, I'm always going to be there to save you. No matter what.

...xxx...

Not bad for an introduction. I know nothing really happens, but it's still early. So, hope you all liked this!